On the heels of an array of retail bankruptcy filings in 2016, New York-based designer Bibhu Mohapatra and retailers The Limited, Wet Seal, and most recently, Payless, all filed for Chapter 11 protection early 2017, and were swiftly followed by a handful of additional filings by other retailers, signaling that there is no end in sight to the constant string of fashion and other retail companies struggling financially.

Amazon admits that it might have a problem with counterfeits. For the first time ever, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant made mention in its annual 10-K filing of the elephant on its platform: fakes. In a single line in the “risk factors” section of the yearly report it files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Jeff Bezos-owned company stated, “We may be unable to prevent sellers in our stores or through other stores from selling unlawful, counterfeit, pirated, or stolen goods, selling goods in an unlawful or unethical manner, violating the proprietary rights of others, or otherwise violating our policies.”

THE FASHION LAW EXCLUSIVE — The RealReal has built a business by making claims about the authenticity of its products that it cannot back up. That is one of the central claims in the scathing lawsuit that Chanel filed against the popular luxury consignment site in a New York federal court in November. Now, just days after The RealReal filed its formal response to the suit, which included asking the court to toss out the case, Chanel has amended its complaint, adding some additional assertions to ideally bolster its existing trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and false advertising claims.

How do create an Instagram account with a rabid and thoroughly monetizable following of more than 14 million, the momentum of which you can use to sell merch, start a lucrative marketing agency, launch various other affiliated business ventures, and build a multi-million dollar media empire? You do it by blatantly stealing others’ content and claiming it as your own. That is the game plan that some wildly successful Instagram accounts have put in place in recent years.

Just over two months after L’Oreal filed suit against Drunk Elephant for allegedly infringing one of its patents in connection with an award-winning and highly-buzzed-about $80-per-ounce Vitamin C serum, L’Oreal filed to voluntarily dismiss one of the parties from its case, although a spokesman for L’Oreal says that the case is still very much underway and the development is little more than “a common procedural step to focus on the legal entity that has engaged in the infringing conduct.”

The “Fiji Water Girl” is not just popping up in the background of red carpet photos. She is popping up on the docket of the Los Angeles County Superior Court thanks to a newly-filed lawsuit. Kelleth Cuthbert, a model-turned-Golden Globes internet sensation, has filed a right of publicity suit, asserting that Fiji Water Co. and its parent, the Wonderful Company, has taken to using her a photograph of her as part of a large-scale advertising campaign without her authorization.

Alessandra Ambrosio, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, Elsa Hosk, Paulina Vega, Lais Ribeiro, Rose Bertram, Gizele Oliveira and Hannah Ferguson, among others, all took to their Instagram accounts in March 2017 to post photos from a Bahamian getaway. What might have appeared to be an impromptu model get-away on the heels of the Fall/Winter 2018 fashion month runway shows was actually a promotional one in connection with the now infamous Fyre Festival.

“Britain’s fashion industry is exploitative and unsustainable and leading brands must up their game to protect workers and cut waste,” Reuters revealed on Thursday, referencing the findings of a Parliamentary committee’s survey of 16 major brands and/or retailers, ranging from fast fashion giants ASOS and Primark to Burberry and Amazon’s UK arm, which is “part of a [governmental] inquiry into Britain’s $42 billion fashion industry amid concerns it encourages over-consumption, generates excessive waste and underpays workers.”

“In a simulacrum of a ’70s nightclub or—given the boudoir-pink velvet banquettes, mirrors, and miles of matching carpet—maybe a high-class pick-up joint,” as Vogue’s Sarah Mower described it, Gucci sent models down a long runway shrouded in a thick mist for Spring/Summer 2017. In a lineup of mostly pale-skinned and largely makeup-free faces, many covered by oversized-and-bedazzled glasses, others obscured with flopped-over hats or thick-rimmed visors, was one face adorned with a fair share of ink.